


Head Above Water

by dogpileboy



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Friendship, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Slow Build, canon events
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2017-12-28 07:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogpileboy/pseuds/dogpileboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Tendo meets the Becket brothers, it’s raining. They come racing in, fresh from the Jaeger Academy, shaking water out of shaggy blond hair and shoving at each other, even in front of Stacker Pentecost himself. Arms folded over his own chest, he watches them take their reprimanding, taking in their strikingly similar features with patient eyes. They were fresh, that’s for sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Head Above Water

**Author's Note:**

> a sad yancy/tendo fic im taking a good long while to write. written to and inspired by [this fanmix](http://tape.ly/ever-get-over-you) (created by me), and is a slow build romantic fic haha. uhm i hope you enjoy!!

The first time Tendo meets the Becket brothers, it’s raining. They come racing in, fresh from the Jaeger Academy, shaking water out of shaggy blond hair and shoving at each other, even in front of Stacker Pentecost himself. Arms folded over his own chest, he watches them take their reprimanding, taking in their strikingly similar features with patient eyes. They were fresh, that’s for sure.

The second time Tendo meets them is their first test run in Danger, watches their Drift and listens to them joke and monitors their connection, and it’s strong, and he’s left impressed, even as he hears them shouting at one another shortly after they finish and howling like children.

Time goes on and they run into each other often. It’s never one without the other, usually, and the first time he ends up talking to Yancy one on one, it’s while nursing his first cup of coffee in the morning.

Leaning by the coffee pot, the mug in his hand and the steam hot on his cheeks, Yancy comes rolling in, hair fluffed from sleep and bags under his eyes. He watches him and, glancing at his second cup of coffee, he slides it over with a quick, “Here, champ.”

Yancy stares at it like it’s a foreign object, confused, before plucking it up and taking a big mouthful. With a shake of the head, he coughs. “Uh,” he starts, choking on the word and coughing again. “Little - little strong, ain’t it?” he asks, eyes lifting towards Tendo incredulously, and the shorter man only laughs a little.

“Better strong than too weak. Finish it, you’ll feel better.” he takes another sip from his mug, watching the oldest Becket make his way into a chair and take it back in big gulps.

He finds out later that Yancy doesn’t really like coffee.

The next Becket boy he catches alone is Raleigh, and it’s underneath the hulking mass of Danger. Dressed in an oil-stained jumper, he looks at the younger Becket and taps him on the shoulder. He’s all grins as he whips around to look at him, excitable as ever, and he just watches him with brows perched on his forehead as he prattles on and on about how amazing she is, how she’s set up so perfectly, how she’s top of the line, and he pats her leg like she’s going to appreciate his attention, strokes the metal up and down.

Tendo likes his enthusiasm and shares the new schematics he’s drawn up for her with him; doesn’t even mind as he leans over his shoulder to get a closer look.

As time goes on, he begins to realize how different the two are. Raleigh’s as excitable as a puppy, ready to go and ready for every kind of change; he’s loud, and proud of himself and his brother. Yancy is much more introverted (if the Beckets could be called that), much calmer, something he blames on the age difference. This is always something that makes Tendo laugh in the mornings they spend around the coffee pot.

The first time Tendo takes them out for drinks, Raleigh bets his brother that he can drink more tequila than him. Yancy accepts the challenge and doesn’t even flinch as they toss back each shot, as opposed to each of Raleigh’s overdramatic grimaces and head shakes. Six shots in, Raleigh can barely form a sentence, and Yancy is all grins, gets himself a seventh shot, and slams it back. Raleigh makes a mad dash to a trash can instead.

Later, when Tendo and he are carrying the youngest Becket back to the Icebox (which really is a feat for Tendo, as he only comes up to their shoulders), he gives him a look. “How’d you manage that?” he asks, a brow cocked. Yancy laughs.

“For every shot, I had the bartender give me water.” he says, flashing a row of pearly whites, and Tendo realizes the Beckets are full of surprises.

They put Raleigh in the bottom bunk and by the time they’ve got his shoes off, he’s out like a light, drooling on the pillow and curled on his side. Tendo just smiles at him and taps Yancy on the shoulder. “Get some sleep, champ. Never know what morning will bring.” he says, still smiling, and catches another glance at Yancy before he turns, at the way he smiles and his dimples. He turns and waves over his shoulder and pretends he doesn’t catch a glimpse of him shirtless as he closes the door behind himself.

It’s out of the blue that he realizes what Yancy means to him. Sure, he’s close to the Becket boys, they go everywhere together. They mockingly call him the oldest brother, the adopted brother, “brother from another mother”, and knock elbows with him like a duo of rowdy pups - but the way that he looks at Raleigh is different. Raleigh is like a younger brother, something to keep on a leash so that he doesn’t climb into a Jaeger and disappear one day, so he doesn’t try to go after the breach himself.

Yancy is just that - different. He’s wiser, he’s got a curve of age in his smile, like he knows a secret that he’s not going to tell Raleigh. Age has been kind to him, and Tendo has to be careful not to stare too long into those gray eyes. He considers his words before he speaks, he considers just what his actions might result in, and his calm always manages to reel his brother in. 

It’s as if one person was split into two, the way the two complete each other, and still Tendo’s eyes manage to find themselves on the oldest Becket.

Saying Yancy and Raleigh aren’t similar isn’t exactly fair, though. Tendo still doesn’t know any other duo that can fight in such utterly perfect patterns. He finds this to be true, not behind the desk at LOCCENT, but one their usual drinking night. Arms pressed against the bar, he’s smoking and shoots back one last shot of whiskey, all laughs as Raleigh gets riled up so easily by Yancy. The younger Becket’s arms shoot up - and right into the hand of a passing thug.

Now, in his youth - he guesses he should say even younger days - Tendo would be far more interested in fighting. His spine straightens, and he’s ready to hightail it when the guy turns with murder in his eyes, and the smaller man is already shrugging his coat on and slapping a random assortment of bills on the table.

But the Beckets are climbing out of their chairs for an entirely different reason.

“What the fuck were you doing?” the man shouts, taller than the Beckets both, and standing closer to Raleigh, who’s been shaking the beer off his hand and nursing his knuckles. He shrugs, calm as ever.

“Yeah, Rals, what were you doin’?” Yancy chimes in, holding his hands up. “Maybe y’should be more careful about assholes walking too close.” The last few words are pointed and it’s a tone that Tendo hasn’t heard out of Yancy’s mouth. Staying in his seat, he reaches out and pulls both of the Becket’s coats into his lap, fishing out a few more bills for drinks.

The man’s eyes snap from Raleigh to Yancy and he gets in close to him too, trying to use his height for intimidation. “The fuck did you just say to me?”

Yancy doesn’t back down and Raleigh comes up beside him, glaring. “I was talking to him, actually, but nice fucking try.” There’s a growl and then both Beckets are ducking the same punch in unison, Raleigh’s flying a fist up and Yancy throwing one down. They both hit and there’s a crash as the man hits into a table.

It’s an all-out brawl, and Tendo sits in his seat with his brows raised. Yancy and Raleigh are tossing him around between the two of them, taking their hits in stride, even as Yancy’s nose starts bleeding and Raleigh’s eyebrow rips. This is just too easy and Tendo glances to the side - three of the man’s friends are charging from the pool table at the back.

With an exclaimation of “shit”, Tendo tosses the bills he’d been searching for down and jumps out of his chair, reaching out to snatch his hands into the back of the Becket’s shirts and pulls. “C’mon, you fucks, we gotta get outta here!” he’s already charging for the door, the two blond brothers barreling after him, and he throws them their coats as they book it down the road. Tendo’s heart is thrumming in his ears and the ringing of their breath is there too, hard and heaving, and it’s not until they’re safely behind the Beckets’ door at Icebox that they finally calm down.

Tendo sprawls out on his back and stares at the ceiling, and Yancy is beside him, Raleigh’s back to the door. The two Beckets start laughing and it’s this ringing noise, loud and happy, and Tendo finds himself pulled in, his hands covering his face. “You fucking assholes!” he shouts, lowering his hands just enough to mockingly glare at them.

“Hey, you saved our asses back there.” Raleigh says, gesturing his thumb over his shoulder. “Watchin’ out for us in and out of the suit, huh?”

With a shrug, Tendo lays back down, trying to keep his heart from pounding straight of his chest. It’d been a long time since he’d run like that. “Who else is gonna watch out for you, if not me?”

Yancy pushes up and props his head on his arm, looking down at Tendo, and the shorter man feels his ears heat at the expression he’s wearing. It’s akin to something he gives Raleigh when the kid does something that makes him proud. He swallows. “Seriously, Tendo, we appreciate it.”

Tendo’s heart swells in his chest and he laughs at that, covering his face with his hands again.

He’s more than prepared to resign himself to never saying a word. Never speaks of it over morning coffee, never talks about it at lunch, and doesn’t even think about it at the bar if he can help it. When Raleigh drinks too much and their elbows brush while they carry him back, he doesn’t talk about it, when he watches them Drift and feels the calm in their connection, he doesn’t breath a word.

The Beckets mean too much to him to lose them over something as petty as attraction.

So when Raleigh backs out of drinking night and it’s just the two of them laughing at the bar, Tendo denies himself the opportunity, drinking every time the urge to talk about it rises. He instead takes their time together as a chance to memorize Yancy’s expressions.

The temptation hits one too many times and he ends up drinking more than normal, stumbling on his feet. Yancy helps him back to his room, all laughs and prods, and the smaller man stands outside of his doorway in the Icebox, in a coat too long for him, looking up at the older Becket. It’s almost too much like a highschool movie. He stumbles on his feet a little as he turns and unlocks the door quickly, pushing himself inside. Yancy lingers in the doorframe.

“You got this?” he asks, brow arched and Tendo shrugs the coat off, stuck in it for a second, and pauses to memorize the sight of him in his doorway. With a nod, he drops it to the floor, not caring if it’s wet in the morning, and sloppily undoes his bowtie.

“I got this, ‘m good.” his words slur together and he drops himself on his bed, looking across at Yancy. The Becket stands there, motionless, watching him, and glances at the floor with that small smile. He turns to leave and waves over his shoulder, pulling the door closed, and bidding the chief tech good night.

Tendo covers his face with his hands as the door closes and sleeps until his alarm blares, and Yancy’s there with a cup of coffee ready for him in the morning.

With each passing month it gets harder to deny himself even the slightest possibility, but neither Becket act differently, so Tendo doesn’t either. Maybe he looks at Yancy longingly when no one is looking, maybe he yearns for those morning coffees and those nights when Raleigh goes out and Yancy stays in with him and they end up sitting in LOCCENT while he works, and talk late into the night, and he doesn’t have to share Yancy’s laugh with anyone.

And when they call it a night, Yancy walks him back to his room, and Tendo wants to call it a sign, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, he doesn’t want to ruin things, even if what he really wants to do is stand on tiptoe and kiss those cupid’s bow lips and run his fingers through those golden locks.

He doesn’t. Instead, he always smiles up at him and unlocks his door and shrugs out of his shoes and coat before Yancy closes the door behind him. It’s a new habit.

His day starts and ends with Yancy. Tendo doesn’t realize it until it’s too late to change anything. Yancy makes him cups of coffee while he works on coding and programming, brings him lunch if LOCCENT is too busy for him to leave. He tells him it’s a favor for him watching out for their asses. Tendo tries hard to convince himself that Yancy’s telling the truth.

Somedays it works better than others.

Their first real Kaiju battle is the first time Tendo can remember being scared. Sure, he was when he assisted the first Jaeger group as chief tech, but this is different - these are the two people he cares about the most. It’s easy enough to hide it from everyone around them, for the Beckets as he coaxes them and soothes them before their neural handshake, and he crosses his fingers over his coffee mug to keep his hands from shaking, but the drip down the back of his neck is a cold sweat.

“Codename: Yamarashi.” Tendo says as the boys wait to be dropped into battle. He’s flipping switches to stay in contact, checking, double checking, triple checking connections, his hands rifling through papers and twisting around the rosary on his palm. “And it’s a big one, guys, you ready for this?” His voice is smooth as butter, always calm, not a single quiver to it. He’s the one who keeps the boys going through battle and brings them home.

He can hear Raleigh snort through the intercom and he just smiles, maintaining professionalism as Pentecost stands behind him. “Whaddya think, shortie?” the younger Becket teases. Tendo laughs and double-triple checks their connection.

The flight doesn’t take terribly long, but it feels like an eternity for everyone waiting. He hears them break the water and stands still. “Alright boys, you already know, but you’re not alone on this one. We’re not just gonna throw you headfirst into battle alone.” he shifts in his seat, just far enough back for Pentecost to lean in.

“Beckets,” he addresses, and Tendo knows it’s going to be a long one, his first speech on the field with the boys, and he holds his coffee to his lips and allows himself a moment to worry. As Pentecost speaks, he swallows mouthfuls and moves on to the second mug he’d snatched for himself, staring forward with tired eyes.

“Ugly sonnuvabitch, ain’t he?” Raleigh says, voice wavering only slightly at the edges, and Tendo laughs at this. “Makes me think of someone I know.” He can just see the two looking at each other with these grins, especially with Yancy’s grunt, and he grins and feels himself relax slightly.

The battle takes hours. Tendo sits there, monitoring their states, and shouts into the headset when Raleigh becomes a little uncentered the second the other Jaeger’s missiles fail. It’s a terrifying moment, knowing Yamarashi has ripped the Jaeger into a non-standing condition, and he can see the fear on Raleigh’s side of the monitor. Yancy talks him back, like only Yancy can, and Tendo has never felt more proud than in the moment Yamarashi’s head comes off and the Becket boys stand victorious. He hollers, stands up and nearly rips his headphones off, listens to the cheer behind them, and turns just in time to see the impressed look on Pentecost’s face.

When the boys come back, they’re weary and hollering and both of them have sweat pouring down their neck, hair pointing at all angles from a bad combination of sweat, heat, and the helmet, and maybe they’re bleeding a little bit from their temples, but it’s nothing that they haven’t dealt with before. Yancy looks beautiful with the sheer joy of victory lining his expression.

Tendo stands in the doorway as they come charging in, jostling each other with fatigued arms, and he just laughs, holding up the whiskey he brought out for the occasion. Both of the Beckets hollar in excitement.

It takes that bottle of strong whiskey and a night in the Becket’s room to get him to waver on his resolve. 

Raleigh’s already out three shots in, exhausted and curled up on his bunk, and Yancy and Tendo sit side by side on the floor. They’re trying to be quiet, laughing at each other as they pass the bottle between them. Yancy makes a face with every drink, and, as it’s Tendo’s liquor of choice, his expression stays pleasantly blank as he takes a pull.

“You really don’t drink this?” he asks as he hands off another pass. Yancy doesn’t drink, instead holds it between his hands and looks the bottle over, before shaking his head. “It’s the same stuff I get shots of at the bar.” he leans back against the bedframe and sighs, watching Yancy with drunk eyes, contemplative and quiet.

He doesn’t realize he’s been leaning in bit by bit until Yancy turns to look at him and their noses are almost touching. Which of their expressions holds the most surprise, though, he’ll never know. Sitting back, swallowing, Tendo looks to the side and rubs at his neck. He can still feel the puff of Yancy’s breath on his cheek, and he shifts a little bit, ready to get to his feet and head back to bed, already starting to mumble some kind of excuse.

Yancy catches his wrist before he can stand and pulls him back down with a solid thunk, brows furrowing as he looks at him. “Choi, what-”

“I’m drunk, Yance, can’t keep my balance too well.” Tendo blurts over him, giving him a little look. “And I’m tired, and you should be tired, and we’ve all had a long day, I mean, hell, look at Raleigh, I think - I think we should call it a night.” He manages to get his hand out of Yancy’s grip and stumbles to his feet, tossing a chaste good night over his shoulder, and ignoring the sound of his name as he closes the door.

Leaning against it to right himself, swallowing, he mutters under his breath and stumbles his way back to his room, alone, feeling incredibly stupid and like everything is ruined. It’s the first time Yancy hasn’t walked him back to his room in a long time.


End file.
